Review: Shackleton's Last Expedition: A Review Author(s): Hugh Robert Mill Review by: Hugh Robert Mill Source: The Geographical Journal, Vol. 55, No. 1 (Jan., 1920), pp. 51-54 Published by: geographicalj Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1781486 Accessed: 28-06-2016 03:21 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), Wiley are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Geographical Journal This content downloaded from 128.233.210.97 on Tue, 28 Jun 2016 03:21:12 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms ( 5* ) SHACKLETON'S LAST EXPEDITION?A REVIEW Hugh Robert Mill, D.Sc. South. The Story of Shackleton's Last Expedition, 1914-1917.? Sir Ernest Shackleton, C.V.O. London: William Heinemann. 1919. Pp. xxii., 376. Illustrations. Price 2$s. THE memorable story of theachievement. Endurance The as toldpolar in regions the first have part seen of manythis volume triumphs is a and tragedies of exploration in the last four hundred years, and when our mind turns to the journeys of Nansen and Peary over the Arctic floes, the drift of the Hansa and the Deutschland in the northern and southern polar pack, and the long boat voyages of Willem Barents's comrades and of Leigh Smith after unex- pected winterings in inhospitable islands, we cannot say that the past has left much chance.for breaking the record of human endurance, courage, and resource- fulness in the polar regions. Nevertheless we are inclined to place this story of the Endurance at the very head of all records of polar adventure on account of the variety of the risks encountered, the accumulated difficulties overcome, and the^almost incredible deliverance of the whole ship's company. The Britons of the twentieth century in this adventure stand in the front rank of adventurers of all time. The story is well told and finely illustrated. If the narrator keeps himself as leader in the forefront throughout, the reader can but acknowledge the fitness of the position. Shackleton "did things that other explorers might have done, but which no other explorers, as a matter of fact, have done. Seeing what his deeds were, we are struck with the combination of fearlessness and modesty with which he tells what he did. Little is added to the essential facts of the riarrative which have been summarized in these pages (Geographical Joumal, 48 (1916), p. 68) from the first telegraphic report. The Endurance with Sir Ernest Shackleton's party left England on 8 August 1914, after the services of the ship and all on board had been offered to the Admiralty for war purposes and declined. They left South Georgia, of the stay at which further particulars would have been very interesting, on 5 December 1914, and navigated the eastern side of theWeddell Sea to 760 34' S., where the Endurance was beset by the pack on 18 January 1915, after coasting Coats Land and coming within sight of Luitpold Land. The drift of the pack carried the ship along the coast south-westwards until on 22 February 1915 she was in 770 S. about 60 miles north of Vahsel Bay, where it had been intended to land and whence Sir Ernest Shackleton was to have started for his march across the continent to Ross Sea, passing the South_ Pole on the way. It became clear then that no start could be made that season, and soon afterwards the drift of the ice began to carry the ship to the north. On 27 October 1915 the Endurance was crushed in the ice in 690 S., and she sank a few weeks later, leaving the party camped on the moving floe, where they remained during the whole of the following summer. The account of the destruction of the ship is very moving, and the photographs enable the reader to realize in a very vivid way the grim ending of the hopes of the expedition. Until 6 April 1916 the twenty-eight men lived on the floe in hourly danger from the cracks that often opened close to their tents, and on that day the three boats were launched in 620 S., and on 13 April 1916 they all succeeded in landing on a narrow beach on Elephant Island. If the party had remained here waiting for a relief expedition, the chance of any surviving to return home would have been This content downloaded from 128.233.210.97 on Tue, 28 Jun 2016 03:21:12 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 52 SHACKLETON'S LAST EXPEDITION?A REVIEW small indeed. Had they attempted to reach a frequented coast in the three battered boats, most of the men wouid undoubtedly have perished. Their safety was due to Shackleton's instant decision to make for South Georgia in the largest boat, and to Frank Wild's unique experience of the art of living on next to nothing in the Antarctic, and his power to keep up the heart of the companions left under his charge. Fortunately the conditions of the twenty- two men left on the island were not so terrible as at first reported. They were not compelled to take refuge from the waves in a cave dug out of the glacial ice ; but were able to build a hut, roofed with the two uptumed boats, on a strip of beach beyond high-water mark. The least diminutive boat, the fames Caird, was partly decked by means of sledge-runners, box-lids and the canvas of a wrecked tent, and in this little whaler of 22 feet in length (about two-thirds the length of the ordinary ship's lifeboat familiar to travellers by sea as an encumbrance to the upper deck) Shackleton with five companions set out on 24 April 1916, in the hope of reaching South Georgia, 750 miles distant across the wildest stretch of ocean in the world. South Georgia is a small target to hit at such a range, and on the few occasions when astrono? mical observations were possible the use of a sextant on such an unstable platform as the heaving boat must have been nearly impossible ; but the nearly impossible was an almost daily occurrence in this whole adventure, and Captain Worsley succeeded in taking and working out some very serviceable positions. On 10 May I9i6the boat entered Haakon Bay, and after a few days' rest and feeding up on albatross chickens, Shackleton and two companions faced another labour as nearly impossible as the last, and in a continuous march found their way across the snow-mountains of South Georgia, which had never been crossed before, and arrived at the whaling-station of Stromness on the morning of 21 May 1916, if we have divined the date aright from the text. Without rest Shackleton set himself to the task of relieving the men on Elephant Island, first from South Georgia, then from the Falkland Islands with the help of an Uruguayan vessel, and twice from Punta Arenas in Chilean vessels. None of the four small craft was fit to enter the ice, and three times he had to turn from the close investment of the floes ; but the fourth attempt, almost impossible as it was to reach the island in the depth ot winter, succeeded, and the Yelcho brought the whole party safely to Chile. So far the book carries the reader along in a torrent of emotion and ever- changing incident ; it tells of no disaster that was not retrieved, of no difficulty that was not surmounted, and the failure of the plan is forgotten in the final deliverance. An excellent map shows the route of the Endurance as a free agent and in the pack, the drift of the floes and the various relief expeditions, so that every incident can be followed and the sense of position is never lost. The second part of the book runs less smoothly, and there is some difficulty in following the comings and goings of the various parties. The Ross Sea expedition was more successfui than that in the.Weddell Sea. The landing was made as planned, the whole system of dep6ts for the relief of the trans- continental party was laid out on the Barrier ice as far as the base of Mount Hope atthe mouth of the Beardmore glacier ; and the Aurora, though blown from her moorings, escaped with her life and was fit after repair to return and bring back the survivors of the land party. The success of the dep6t-laying parties was purchased at a terrible price of suffering, and was clouded by the loss of three lives ; Captain Mackintosh, the leader of the Ross Sea side of the Expedition, perished, and much of his journal was lost with him. Mistakes or This content downloaded from 128.233.210.97 on Tue, 28 Jun 2016 03:21:12 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms SHACKLETON'S LAST EXPEDITION?A REVIEW 53 delays were made which left the shore party imperfectly provided for when the ship broke away. Sir Ernest Shackleton observes that it is easy to be wise after the event, and makes no harsh refleetions.